by John Corwin
"Hello." Shushiel's whispery voice came from overhead. We looked up and found her on the ceiling. "The painting is this way." She crawled across the ceiling and stopped in front of the portrait of Daelissa preparing to murder Jeremiah. There was no symbol to be seen anywhere in the painting.
"Where is it?" I asked.
She came down the wall and stopped just above the frame. Two of her forelegs pried the edge of the life-sized painting from the wall and without effort set it to the side. Painted on the wall behind it were three touching circles with a tree in the space between. Just beneath it were the initials S.M.
"So cool." Max reached out his hand and tentatively touched it. "It looks three-dimensional."
"Amazing," Ambria said. "Just like his other paintings."
I stepped next to Max and looked at the image from the sides just to confirm it was indeed a flat image and not hovering right in front of my face. It was like viewing a hologram when I looked at it from the front. Mandracorn's other paintings were not this impressive.
"Why did they cover it?" I asked.
Shushiel raised her forelegs in what might have been a spider shrug. "I do not know."
I stepped in front of it and backed up until it seemed the symbol hung right in front of me. On impulse, I reached out, expecting my hand to find nothing but air. Instead, it grasped something solid. I pulled and a copy of the symbol formed in my hand, the original remaining in place. It was the size of a pendant, filling the palm of my hand.
"What in the world?" Ambria reached out a hand and touched the copy. "It's real!"
I turned it around in my hands, flipping it over and examining it from all sides. It felt metallic, but light as air. "Amazing," I breathed.
"Let me see it." Max took the symbol and ran his fingers along the edges. "It's hard and cold like metal, but it weighs nothing." The symbol turned to smoke and drifted apart.
"You ruined it, Max!" Ambria pressed her hands to her face in horror. "It's gone!"
I reached my hand toward the painting and pulled free another copy.
Ambria gasped. "You can get another one?"
I laughed. "This is amazing." I gave it to her. "What does it feel like to you?"
She took it and pressed her fingers against the tree. "This part feels like wood, but the rest is like metal." A few seconds later, it misted into nothing in her hands.
"I guess it only lasts a little while," Max said. He elbowed me to the side and took my position. "Let me try." He reached forward and grabbed, but nothing happened. "Huh?"
"Make sure you're right in front of it," I said.
Max tried again and again, but had no better luck.
Ambria shoved him out of the way. "You're hopeless, Max. Let me show you how it's done."
Despite her confident words, Ambria had no more success than Max and finally gave up.
I stepped back into place and drew out a copy. Reaching forward with my other hand, I took another. "Let me test something." I handed one to Max and held onto the other. Seconds after Max took the symbol, it puffed away while mine remained solid. I placed mine on the floor. "Don't touch it."
The symbol remained in place while I counted off a minute. I motioned to Ambria. "Pick it up."
She knelt and took it, and once again, the symbol vanished. I repeated the test, but gave it to Shushiel instead. The spider watched the symbol vanish. "How curious," she said. "Perhaps only you can hold the symbol because you are descended from Ezzek Moore."
Max slapped his palm to his forehead. "Of course!"
"Yes, but what's the purpose?" Ambria motioned toward the symbol. "What use is it if he could fill a sack with the things?"
I took another copy. "Let's test a theory." We walked down the aisle to the painting of the door on the wall. The symbol in my hand looked too small for the curved triangle portion to line up with the one in the portrait, but I centered it on it anyway. The symbol stretched wider until the lines matched perfectly.
The door seemed to jump off the canvas, a hologram like the one with the symbol. I reached out and pulled on the handle. With a click, the door opened into darkness.
We stood there, mouths hanging open. Even Shushiel's mandibles hung open, all eight of her eyelids blinking.
"Wait a minute," I said. "Spiders don't have eyelids."
Max snorted. "You just opened a door hidden in a magical painting and that's the first thing you say?"
I took out my wand and lit it with a thought. Holding it at arm's length, I walked toward the door.
Ambria gripped my arm. "Just the tip, Conrad!"
I nodded and let just the wand cross the threshold. Polished wood flooring became visible. Ambria released my arm and I stepped into the dark. Glowballs flickered to life overhead, like a string of Christmas lights spreading into a vast warehouse that seemed to stretch on forever. Shelves towered two stories high, and even higher in other places, like a miniature city of skyscrapers.
The others followed me inside.
"Brilliant," Max breathed. "This must be the legendary Vault of Moses!"
"It would take a lifetime to explore this place," Ambria said. She looked back and forth between the museum and the warehouse. "How does it fit inside the keep?"
"It's not in the keep," Max said. "We just stepped into a magical pocket dimension."
I heard people talking, footsteps echoing down the corridor back in the keep. Without thinking, I pulled the door shut and instantly regretted it. "I hope it opens back in the same place." I put my ear to the door, but couldn't hear anything through the thick wood.
"Who cares?" Max said. "This place is supposedly filled with things the original Arcane Council didn't want loose in the world, not to mention stuff Moses collected."
"Look at this." Ambria walked to a thick book on a pedestal just a few yards from the door. She opened it and traced a finger down the page. "It's an index, but it's in Latin."
My heart raced as I realized what wonders might be hidden here. I flipped through the thick yellowed pages of parchment until I found the J section. Halfway through, I found a listing: Juranthemon. Below it were individual items. I had my phone translate the list: map, key, heart, nose.
Ambria wrinkled her nose. "Eww, a nose?"
Max pointed out the lot numbers. "How about we stop talking about it and find out?"
Next to the book pedestal was a pile of musty, rolled up carpets. Max kicked one open with his foot and rewarded us with a cloud of dust. I coughed and backed away until it settled somewhat. As I'd imagined, the carpet levitated off the floor when I commanded it, so we all climbed on board. Despite her size, Shushiel was able to compact herself in a corner with Ambria standing between her forelegs.
"You're so fluffy!" Ambria declared, rubbing the ruby fur. "I hope this doesn't offend you."
"I enjoy having my fur stroked," the spider said. "Much like people enjoy having their backs scratched."
I directed the carpet to the aisle number indicated in the index, and then flew down it. Each shelf tower was about a hundred yards long where space between it and the next shelf was left to allow crossing to another aisle. It looked as though the height of the towers was extended when more space needed to be added, though in some places, the shelves were bare, as if nothing that began with "Je" had been collected to fill the section.
We passed all manner of artifacts, from massive marble statues, portraits, clothing, furniture, and even a rusty tricycle. In some places, items were piled on the floor, labeled with Latin on ancient parchment.
Holding my phone out to one of the labels, I asked it to translate.
"Please adjust shelving to fit new items in proper place," the phone said in its robotic monotone. We came to a section of earthenware pottery covered with warnings.
"Please do not touch the cursed pottery," my phone read. "Material evidence for trial of witches accused of killing the Dafongi villagers."
Max shivered. "Creepy."
"I imagine this place is filled
with horrors," Ambria said.
"I feel bad vibrations." Shushiel pointed a leg toward the back. "There are things in here, alive, but barely."
Max shuddered. "Living things?" He took out his wand. "I've got a bad feeling about this."
"Guardians?" Ambria said.
Shushiel remained silent a moment. "I cannot tell if we are getting closer to them, or if they are getting closer to us."
I went from feeling happy and relaxed to a raw bundle of nerves. When we reached the proper section, Shushiel hopped off the carpet. "I will investigate," she said. "Be careful." The spider crawled up the side of the shelf tower and shimmered into camouflage.
I took the carpet forward a few feet and found the exact section I was looking for at floor level. Inside a clear display case, a marble nose sat atop velvet cloth. Next to it was a blank space and a folded piece of postcard with a message written in English.
Dearest Jeremiah:
Perhaps you never check your inventory and my words are wasted, but I cannot in good conscience take the map and key from the Arcane Archives without leaving a note. You think the Slade boy a danger to your plans. I believe he is our salvation. As such, I will put him through my crucible and see if the boy survives. I cannot do this without granting him some tools. The map and key will do.
Sincerely,
Underborn
P.S. Perhaps you should keep a closer eye on such important relics. The heart was missing though you have it listed in your inventory.
P.P.S. I also borrowed several blink stones. My research indicates they date back to the time of Juranthemon, but you have them stored separately. You really should hire some help.
"Whoa," Max breathed. "Underborn helped Justin Slade back in the day. Man, I wish I was older back then. It would've been so cool to fight in the war."
"A nose." Ambria sniffed. "What's so special about a stone nose?"
"Looks like it came off a statue," Max said.
I thought back to Evadora's story and realized I hadn't told my friends about the encounter. I corrected the oversight with a detailed summary, including the part about Jura.
"How awful!" Ambria hugged herself and shivered. "In other words, the hands and nose of Jura are body parts from people who lived in Juranthemon?"
Max chuckled. "I wonder if there's a Big Toe of Jura somewhere."
"I don't see how anything survived the Sundering intact." I examined the edges of the display case but couldn't find a way to open it. Even though it looked like glass, it wouldn't budge when I tried to lift or push it.
"Look here," Max said, holding his illuminated wand against the corner. Etched into the glass was the Arcane Crest—the very same that opened the door.
"Great," I groaned. "I guess I need to go all the way back and get another one of the symbols."
"Hold on." Ambria took my hand and pressed it against the symbol. The case clicked and slid open. She giggled and raised her arms in victory. "I solved a puzzle!"
Max clapped slowly. "Bravo."
I stared at the stone nose, wondering what magical properties it might have. Could it kill me or my friends? What if it was cursed like the pottery? There was only one way to find out.
Steeling my nerves, I reached for the Nose of Jura and held my breath.
Chapter 15
The nose felt like cold stone in my hand. It was a small nose, quite pert. I wondered if it belonged to Saila or if someone else had lost it in the explosion. More than anything, I wondered if this disembodied nose could do anything special.
Max sneezed. Ambria shrieked and jumped back from me, as if the nose in my hand had just exploded. Shushiel dropped from above and landed between us, much to our shock. Ambria cried out again and fell on her backside. Max tripped over his own feet and grabbed me for support.
Shushiel blinked and her mandibles twitched. I had seen her do that the other times she startled us, and was beginning to suspect it meant she was amused or laughing. In fact, when her mandibles spread, it resembled a spider grin.
"We are safe," she announced. "There are display cases with living creatures inside, but they are preserved, asleep."
Max wiped his forehead. "Whew. I guess the only thing we have to worry about is you scaring us half to death."
"A little warning would be nice," Ambria said.
I pocketed the nose and got back on the carpet. "Get on. We have one more stop before we go." I flew the group back to the index book and tracked down the blink stones. If they had something to do with Jura, then they might be useful. As I'd thought, they were in the B section.
We found a bin full of rubble, smooth stones of all shapes, sizes, and colors. The Latin label simply said, "Requires further research."
Max kicked the side of the bin. "Maybe these rocks are all that's left of Jura."
"Yes, like parts of buildings!" Ambria picked up a smooth pink stone that fit in the palm of her hand. "How pretty. Can I keep it?"
"It's a bleeding rock," Max said. "What's so special about these things?"
Shushiel tried to pick up one, but lacking digits on her legs, found it difficult to scoop anything from the bin. I plucked the bright red one for her. "Is this what you wanted?"
She bobbed up and down in a nod. "Yes, Conrad." I held it out and she pinched it between her forelegs. "It is very pretty."
"Just like you," Ambria said. Something sparkling further down the aisle caught her attention. "Oh, what's that down—"
Ambria exploded in a puff of shadows, her body instantly annihilated. In the shocked instant it took me to realize my friend had just been obliterated I gagged, felt hot tears burning my eyes, and the world began to fade. A faraway scream penetrated my haze and I tore my eyes from the place where Ambria had stood and saw her staggering thirty yards away, mouth wide with terror.
Max looked at Ambria and back to the smooth black stone in his hand. His eyes widened, mouth spread into a devilish grin, and then he vanished, reappearing in the same instant right next to Ambria. She shrieked again.
Shushiel was the next to dematerialize, appearing several feet above my friends and then dropping right in front of them. Ambria stumbled backwards with a yelp while Max hooted and pumped his fist, even as he wobbled drunkenly.
Understanding penetrated my shock. These stones could take a person from one place to another in a blink. I concentrated on the place my friends stood and wished to be next to them. The world vanished in a blink of darkness. When it reappeared, I stood next to Max. I might have laughed with him had I not felt so dizzy that I could barely stand upright. Even Shushiel wobbled on her eight legs.
Max held up his stone and grinned. "I am definitely keeping this."
After toying around with the blink stones, for a while, we realized that the more we used them, the more they upset our sense of balance. I was ready to toss up my dinner after the third blink and had to stop. Shushiel stuck her stone on her abdomen with a small bit of webbing so she wouldn't have to hold it in her forelegs. Blinking made her less dizzy than the rest of us, but even she admitted it was unpleasant.
"I wonder how far I can go," Max said.
Ambria hiccupped. "I'm done testing. One more time and I'll vomit all over the place."
Max fixed his eyes on something and vanished. He fell to his knees and threw up on the floor about fifty yards away. When he finished, he stumbled back over to us. "I tried to blink to the end of the shelf, but it looks like the limit is about forty yards, give or take." He wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "Man, I'm starving all of a sudden."
Ambria looked like she'd just bitten into a lemon. "Because you threw up dinner!"
Shushiel's mandibles spread into a grin. "This is much more fun than working for Galfandor."
Ambria rested a hand on the spider's back. "That's because you're our friend and we don't make our friends work for us."
Max chortled. "You made me clean up your kitchen plenty of times."
"Because you made a mess, Max Tiberius!" Ambria set he
r hands on her hips and gave him a fierce look. "That's called responsibility."
Shushiel trembled with spider laughs.
We went back to the magical door. Holding my breath with apprehension, I pushed out. The door opened back into the museum, much to our relief, so we filed out and closed it behind us. The Arcane Crest was gone, the door once again a painting.
Shushiel camouflaged and vanished. Max held his belly and grumbled about being hungry, so we went to the empty dining hall. We had to go to the back of the room and knock on the golem servant door before one of them came out and delivered a plate of steaming roast. As Max chomped happily on a late dinner, I took out the nose and inspected it.
There were no markings or engravings on it. The back was rough and indented, as if it had been torn off a statue, while the front was intricately made, every pore accounted for. The nose was far too perfectly imperfect like a real nose to have belonged to a statue. I wondered if Saila had been somehow petrified before her destruction.
There was so much to discover about this relic and the other related relics. Unfortunately, there was only one place that might have the information, and even if I could find my way back there, it was extremely dangerous.
"What are you thinking?" Max said with his mouth full.
"Max," Ambria said sweetly, "have I ever told you that listening to you chew makes me fantasize about your death?"
He frowned, but began chewing with his mouth closed.
While Max finished his roast, I told them my plan. "We have to find where the Seers held me prisoner. I need to see if they have a book about Jura."
Neither Ambria nor Max looked surprised. If anything Ambria looked resigned. "I thought you might want to do something like that."
"Don't we have dinner with Gwyneth Augustus tomorrow?" Max said. "Maybe she can answer your questions so we don't have to risk finding the Seers."
I'd nearly forgotten about the dinner, but nodded. "Sure. Maybe she can tell us what the nose does."
"I'll tell you what it does." Max took the nose, made a silly face, and put it up to his face. "It makes boogers!" The nose of Jura leapt from his hand and molded itself like putty over Max's nose. His eyes went round and he shouted in alarm. "Help, it's got me!"